Criminal justice reporter

Authorities arrested on Tuesday a 30-year-old Athens man on charges of aggravated child molestation and 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a child.

Joshua Dale Aiken was charged with the offenses under the state Family Violence Act, but further details from authorities were not immediately available Wednesday.

The victim of the alleged molestation was a family member, Athens-Clarke County police said. To protect the child’s identity, police would not disclose the child’s gender or age other than to say the victim was younger than a teen.

Police said they continued to investigate to determine whether the child’s image was disseminated over the Internet or through other means.

Aiken was previously arrested in January 2011 following an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He was charged at the time with possession of child pornography.

Authorities said he also had a laptop computer, a TV and other items that had been stolen from the University of Georgia, where he apparently worked at that time as a contracted security guard, according to the GBI special agent in charge of the agency’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit.

In addition, Athens-Clarke County police officers who participated in the search of Aiken’s home on Watson Drive seized three handguns, one a semiautomatic pistol reported stolen in Oglethorpe County.

Aiken was subsequently charged by Athens-Clarke County and UGA police forces with theft by receiving stolen property and burglary.

The GBI identified Aiken as one of several people suspected of using the Internet to download, upload and trade child porn in an investigation the agency began in November 2010. GBI agents seized Aiken’s computer, which authorities said contained images of children having sex with adults.

When indicted by a grand jury in February 2011, Aiken was charged with sexual exploitation of children and two counts of theft by receiving stolen property.

However, the indictment was dismissed in April this year following a motion by a prosecutor noting that forensic examination of a computer and other evidence had yet to conclude.

“If the analysis supports the prosecution, multiple counts of sexual exploitation of children should be included in an indictment,” Assistant District Attorney David Lock said in the motion.

That investigation was not related to Aiken’s more recent arrest, police said.

He was arrested Tuesday while at his job at The Varsity on West Broad Street.

Aiken reportedly asked if police “could just swab him there in the parking lot so that he wouldn’t have to go to jail and lose his job,” according to an incident report.

Anyone who has been sexually assaulted or knows someone who has can contact The Cottage Sexual Assault Center and Children’s Advocacy Center. The agency provides a range of free services that includes medical accompaniment, advocacy, referrals, counseling and support groups. Call the crisis and information hotline at 877-363-1912, or for more information visit www.northgeorgiacottage.org.